The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 134: Devastating Effects of Sin (2025)
Wed, 14 May 2025
Fr. Mike talks about the horrible things that can happen when we turn away from God and stop asking him "what's the next step?" In today's readings we see David humbled and humiliated, Absalom revealing how devastating sin is, and the evil that comes from war. Today's readings are 2 Samuel 16, 1 Chronicles 21, and Psalm 15. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: What are today's Bible readings?
hi my name is father mike schmitz and you're listening to the bible in a year podcast where we encounter god's voice and live life through the lens of scripture the bible in a year podcast is brought to you by ascension using the great adventure bible timeline we'll read all the way from genesis to revelation discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today it is day 134 we are reading from second samuel chapter 16 also first chronicles chapter 21 and we're praying psalm 15 if you're interested
in knowing what Bible translation I am reading from. It is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe. As I said, it is day 134.
We're reading 2 Samuel 16, 1 Chronicles 21, and we're praying Psalm 15. Second book of Samuel, chapter 16, David meets Ziba. When David had passed a little beyond the summit, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him with a couple of donkeys saddled, bearing 200 loaves of bread, 100 bunches of raisins, 100 of summer fruits, and a skin of wine.
Chapter 2: Who was David meeting in 2 Samuel 16?
And the king said to Ziba, Why have you brought these? Ziba answered, The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who faint in the wilderness to drink. And the king said, And where is your master's son? Ziba said to the king, Behold, he remains in Jerusalem.
For he said, Today the house of Israel will give me back the kingdom of my father. Then the king said to Ziba, behold, all that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours. And Ziba said, I do obeisance. Let me ever find favor in your sight, my lord, the king. Shimei curses David.
Chapter 3: What did Shimei say to David?
When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. And as he came, he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.
And Shimei said as he cursed, Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, you worthless fellow. The Lord has avenged upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. And the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your ruin is on you, for you are a man of blood.
Then Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head. But the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zerui? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, Curse David, who then shall say, Why have you done so? And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, Behold, my own son seeks my life.
How much more now may this Benjaminite? Let him alone and let him curse, for the Lord has bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look upon my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing of me today. So David and his men went on the road while Shimei went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust.
And the king and all the people who were with him arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself. The Council of Ahithophel Now Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. And when Hushai, the archite, David's friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, Long live the king, long live the king.
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Chapter 4: What was the advice given to Absalom?
And Absalom said to Hushai, Is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend? And Hushai said to Absalom, No, for whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will remain. And again, whom shall I serve? Should it not be his son? As I have served your father, so I will serve you.
Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, Give your counsel, what shall we do? Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go into your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.
Chapter 5: What sin did David commit in 1 Chronicles 21?
So they pitched a tent for Absalom upon the roof, and Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. Now in those days, the counsel which Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the oracle of God. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed both by David and by Absalom.
The first book of Chronicles chapter 21, the census and the pestilence.
Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, go number Israel from Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report that I may know their number. But Joab said, May the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are. Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this?
Why should he bring guilt upon Israel? But the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went through all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand who drew the sword.
Chapter 6: What was God's response to David's sin?
But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab. But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. And David said to God, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now I pray you take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.
And the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and say to David, Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you. So Gad came to David and said to him, Thus says the Lord, Take which you will.
either three years of famine or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord pestilence upon the land and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me. Then David said to Gad, I am in great distress.
Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great. But let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and there fell 70,000 men of Israel. And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But when he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he repented of the evil, and he said to the destroying angel, It is enough. Now stay your hand.
And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornon the Jebusite. And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said to God, Was it not I who gave the command to number the people?
It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray you, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father's house. But let not the plague be upon your people. David's altar and sacrifice.
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Chapter 7: How did David respond to the angel of the Lord?
Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad's word, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. He turned and saw the angel and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.
As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went forth from the threshing floor and did obeisance to David with his face to the ground. And David said to Ornan, Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord. Give it to me at its full price that the plague may be averted from the people.
Then Ornan said to David, Take it and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for the cereal offering. I give it all. But King David said to Ornan, No, but I will buy it for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings, which cost me nothing.
So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site. And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the Lord. And he answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. Then the Lord commanded the angel, and he put back his sword into its sheath. The site for the temple chosen.
At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he made his sacrifices there. For the temple of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
Psalm 15, who shall abide in God's sanctuary? A Psalm of David. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy mountain?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth from his heart, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord.
who swears to his own hurt and does not change, who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you.
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Chapter 8: What does Psalm 15 teach us about dwelling in God's presence?
It's because the chronicler is telling a different story. He's telling the story of the Messiah, that ancestor or the yeah, the one to come after David. He's telling the story of worship because this is all about. So keep that in mind. All right. So we go back to 2 Samuel chapter 16. And what do we see? What we see is a couple people and some deceptions.
So we have Mephibosheth, which is easy for me to say. Wow. Mephibosheth is the son of Jonathan. And now David is told by Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, that Mephibosheth is basically just waiting in Jerusalem because he is going to be waiting to see who wins between David and Absalom. And he's going to pick up the pieces after both of them destroy each other.
We're going to find out in 2 Samuel chapter 19 that that is not true. That's not true that he's been lied to in this moment. But just keep that in mind. Hold that in your thoughts. Mephibosheth is not a traitor to David. He's being told right now that he is a traitor to David. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's not going to be true.
Then we have this powerful scene, I think, with Shimei, right? Who's Shimei, who's also a family of the house of Saul. And he's cursing David. Now keep this in mind. He even says, scripture says he's being surrounded by all of these people, all of David's household and all of David's mighty men. And here's Shimei who's throwing rocks and throwing dust at the people while he's cursing David.
And you have Abishai. who's one of David's right-hand men, right? He's one of the close guys here. Abishai says to the king, let me go over and cut off his head. And David has this response. And his response reveals that David has been humbled. He says, my own son is trying to kill me. How can it get any worse? Here's this person, this Shimei, who's cursing me.
Yeah, my own son is trying to kill me. He I have no pride left. I have no sense of self left that I think I'm above this person cursing me. And he says, maybe even God has told him to curse me. I have lived in such a way that I am not immune to curses. I'm not above this and I'm not so good and so innocent that Shimei isn't saying the truth.
And that, again, that is a great sign of repentance for all of us. When it comes to here's someone who's cursing us, here's someone who's criticizing us, here's someone who's saying something negative about us, realize actually what you're saying, whether it's true or not, what we realize is, yeah, you're not even covering half of it.
What you're criticizing me for or even cursing me for or bawling me out for is not even half of it. If you knew the state of my heart at times, if you knew how much in rebellion I could be to the Lord at times, then yeah, your criticism means nothing. Here's David saying, yeah, my own son is trying to kill me. And not only this, oh gosh, it gets even worse.
Now, David, remembering his sin, remembering that it was prophesied that you're going to experience incredible disgrace in the sight of all the people. You did this in the dark, but something horrible is going to happen in the light. And that horrible thing happens where Ahithophel, who is the counselor of Absalom, right?
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